G. Willow Wilson

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G. Willow Wilson (born August 31, 1982) is the writer of the Vertigo series Air and the DCU mini Vixen: Return of the Lion. Her graphic novel Cairo was inspired by her conversion to Islam, her move to Egypt, and her life as an American and a Muslim in the post-9/11 Arab world.

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Wilson was born New Jersey in 1982 and was raised in Colorado. She attended Boston University, where she earned her degree in History and took classes Arabic language and literature. When she was 19, she interned at Komikwerks, an online comics publisher founded by Shannon Denton.[1] Raised atheist, in high school and college she explored her spirituality, studying everything from neo-Paganism to Islam. She converted to Islam soon after graduating from college while on a plane to Cairo, according to her memoir.[2]

Soon after moving to Cairo to teach English, she met her future husband Omar Haggag. After she became a journalist for the opposition weekly Cairo Magazine, through Omar's family she was able to interview Sheikh Ali Gomaa, the Mufti of Egypt, becoming the first Westerner to do so. She later wrote for such American magazines as The Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times Magazine.

A comic book fan since the age of 11[3], she wrote the script for Cairo in 2003. After she showed it to Keith Giffen at San Diego Comic Con, it found its way to editor Joan Hilty and Karen Berger, head editor of DC's Vertigo imprint.[4]. After Cairo was finished, she and artist M.K. Perker began working on the ongoing series Air, which ran for 24 issues at Vertigo. She has also written the Vixen: Return of the Lion miniseries, issues of The Outsiders and Superman, and contributed to Girl Comics. In 2011, she wrote a 4-issue miniseries called Mystic, a revival of the defunct Crossgen title; it was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Publication for Young Adults.

She has also published two works of prose: her memoir, The Butterfly Mosque, published in June 2010, and a novel, Alif the Unseen, published June 2012. A story about a computer hacker in an unnamed emirate, the novel combines elements of cyberpunk, Islamic folklore, and modern Arab politics. It was named one of The New York Times's 100 notable books of the year (one of 25 novels).[5]

She currently splits her time between Cairo and Seattle. She gave birth to her first child, Maryam, on February 8th, 2011, while her Egyptian in-laws were in the midst of the revolution. Her second daughter, Safeya, was born in October 2012.